Overcharged now DCA help!

[overcharged]

Hi
We pay a yearly service charge for grass cutting etc. We moved in halfway through a year so paid our first payment to the management company of about £100 in 2009.

The following April our new bill was sent out for £223 + the £100 we'd already paid. So we paid the £223 we owed. I contacted the management company who had 'lost' record of the £100 because it was paid during a cross over from one management company to another. They asked for proof, so I took proof to their offices and was told it would be amended.

The following April our bill was £223 + the £100. So I emailed and asked for the correct bill then we would pay. We heard nothing.

The next April our bill was last years + this years = £446 + the £100. We were fed up. We emailed, phoned. I explained I was quite happy to pay the £446 but please send an accurate bill out. The last I heard was an email saying they would look into it.

After a while we had a letter from a debt collection agency. They demanded over £900 or else they may contact our mortgage lender. So I explained the situation to them, they asked for proof of the £100 payment, so I gave it.

Yesterday we had a letter from the DCA saying they acknowledge the £100, they've taken it off so instead we have to pay over £800! As far as we're concerned we owe £446, we just wanted an accurate bill.


We don't know what to do? Can they do this? Is it legal? Who do we speak to about this? Advice welcome.

Thank you for reading this, we're feeling a bit desperate!

[orfoster]

Re: Overcharged now DCA help!

Have you written a letter of complaint from your perspective? Are these discussions by telephone/person? I would suggest it all goes in writing to the management company, you need to clearly set out the events and what happened, your position around what you owe and why you owe that figure (with evidence and copies of e-mails etc), send it recorded delivery to them and await their response, I think until you receive their response you are a little in the dark.

They may simply accept your sequence of events and agree to the £446 figure in which case it will then be a matter of how you will pay it and whether this will be a one off payment or over a period of time.

[nemesis45]

Re: Overcharged now DCA help!

A Formal Complaint to management company addressed to a director/MD for a start use signed for post.
It may also so serve any future action to make a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act 1998 this requires the recipient
(management Co.) to supply all the personal data it holds. You will be looking to find documentation on the charges and the referral to a DCA ( which DCA is involved?).

SAR has a statutory fee of £10.00 to pay. ( use a cheque or postal order, clearly endorsed " for statutory fee only") they have 40 days to comply.

The whole conduct of this smacks of total incompetence!

nem

[overcharged]

Re: Overcharged now DCA help!

Thanks for the replies.

Most correspondence has been by email, some on the phone.

The DCA is called Property Debt Collection Ltd. The letter received yesterday says:

“Further to previous correspondence we write to acknowledge a credit made to your account and can confirm the balance now stands at £836.

We put you on notice we will now continue in our action until the arrears are made in full. We may approach your mortgagee for payment and/or instruct our solicitor to issue legal proceedings for both the debt and the costs.

Should you wish to settle the arrears at any time please contact our office on the above number.”